We're certified!

After five hours in a pool, followed by our first two ocean dives the next day, it was a bit of a relief when we couldn't do our last two dives the following day, as planned. Even though this meant staying around (relatively) expensive Ao Nang for a few more days until there was another dive trip to Phi Phi, it did give us a chance to recover from the unaccustomed hard work:

By Thursday, we were ready to go - and the magic of seasickness pills ensured we enjoyed our three-hour boat trip to the first dive site.

On with the kit, and down we went:

The first dive took us to 18 metres or so below the surface, with 20-25m visibility and a beautiful reef to float about (after we'd done our skills tests) - lobsters, a moray eel, and all kinds of fish. But the underwater disposable camera didn't like the lack of light - so no good photos, sorry!

Then lunch, as the boat took us round the corner of Phi Phi Ley to The Beach (as used in the film, The Beach) - Hollywood may have messed it about, but it looked like the tsunami had pretty much cleaned it up:

Here, we swam and snorkelled and played with the fishes:

Our final dive (for now) was less deep, and a few of the photos weren't underexposed. Sadly, the bit where we floated inside a huge school of silverfish in the mouth of a cavern, the school forming ribbons and swirls around us (my favourite bit of diving yet, I think) was just too dark.

This was my favourite dive so far, all together, with a real feeling of weightlessness and wonder. Rosa got a 'squeeze' (pain on descending) in her ear after we'd done our controlled emergency swimming ascent test, and couldn't clear it, so she had to sit out the last ten minutes of our last dive on the boat :-(

Which still doesn't excuse her getting 100% on the 'exam' we did on the boat on the way back, when I only got 96% ...

Anyway, we are both now certified open-water scuba divers, planning to take Peter S. up on his offer to take us to Stoney Cove when we're home, and hoping to be able to afford another dive or two in Mexico. Many thanks to our long-suffering instructor, Brian from Scotland (and England) - and to our fellow students, Marta and Billy from Norway and California:

- Mark